Houston Ballet dancer leaps into 'So You Think You Can Dance'

Jim Nowakowski first wowed the judges during the Los Angeles auditions for season 12 of "So You Think You Can Dance."

Jim Nowakowski first wowed the judges during the Los Angeles auditions for season 12 of "So You Think You Can Dance."

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Top 20 contestant Jim Nowakowski (26) is a part of Team Stage on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE airing Mondays on FOX.

Top 20 contestant Jim Nowakowski (26) is a part of Team Stage on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE airing Mondays on FOX.

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Jim Nowakowski wowed the judges during the Los Angeles auditions for Season 12 of "So You Think You Can Dance."

Jim Nowakowski wowed the judges during the Los Angeles auditions for Season 12 of "So You Think You Can Dance."

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Jim Nowakowski, who is now competing on the 12th season of "So You Think You Can Dance," struck a dramatic pose for Houston Ballet's 2013-2014 season brochure.

Jim Nowakowski, who is now competing on the 12th season of "So You Think You Can Dance," struck a dramatic pose for Houston Ballet's 2013-2014 season brochure.

Photo: Amitava Sarkar

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Jim Nowakowski had a brief but stunningly good solo as Agni, the fire god, in Houston Ballet's new production of La Bayadere, choreographed by Stanton Welch. Peter Farmer designed the sets and costumes.
Credit: Amitava Sarkar less

Jim Nowakowski had a brief but stunningly good solo as Agni, the fire god, in Houston Ballet's new production of La Bayadere, choreographed by Stanton Welch. Peter Farmer designed the sets and costumes.
Credit: ... more

Photo: Amitava Sarkar

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Jim Nowakowski showed off his pyrotechnic leaps often as Gopak in "The Nutcracker."
credit: Amitava Sarkar

Jim Nowakowski showed off his pyrotechnic leaps often as Gopak in "The Nutcracker."
credit: Amitava Sarkar

Lauren Strongin, left to right, Jessica Collado and Jim Nowakowski posed for a Chronicle story on a recent Houston Ballet season.

Lauren Strongin, left to right, Jessica Collado and Jim Nowakowski posed for a Chronicle story on a recent Houston Ballet season.

Photo: Michael Paulsen, Staff

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Jim Nowakowski for a photo on top of the Downtown Aquarium in 2013 for the Chronicle's Arts Guide.

Jim Nowakowski for a photo on top of the Downtown Aquarium in 2013 for the Chronicle's Arts Guide.

Photo: Michael Paulsen, Staff

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SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: New judges Jason Derulo (L) and Paula Abdul (M) join Nigel Lythgoe (R) for the 12th season of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE premiering summer 2015 on FOX. Â2015 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Jeffrey Neira/FOX less

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: New judges Jason Derulo (L) and Paula Abdul (M) join Nigel Lythgoe (R) for the 12th season of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE premiering summer 2015 on FOX. Â2015 Fox Broadcasting Co. ... more

Dancer Jim Nowakowski doesn't have to look at his Instagram account to know his world has changed. But the number of his followers recently skyrocketed from fewer than 1,000 to 10,400, validating any doubts he might have had about leaving the rarefied world of Houston Ballet to compete in Fox's reality show "So You Think You Can Dance."

While his former colleagues performed a mixed rep of contemporary ballets this week in Hamburg, Germany, Nowakowski was gearing up for a big unknown in a chaotic world where dances are never more than three-minute routines. He said he felt like it was a "now-or-never" time.

At 26, he's still in his prime. But as a classical ballet dancer, he'd settled into a slot as a demi-soloist, typically called on to perform acrobatic, high-jumping roles like the Bluebird in "The Sleeping Beauty" and the Gopak in "The Nutcracker."

"I went to Houston Ballet at 18, so it's all I've known. I needed a change of atmosphere. I was ready for a new beginning, and I had nothing tying me down except my fear," he said.

More Information

'So You Think You Can Dance'

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Network: Fox

After wowing judges Nigel Lythgoe (who is also the shows executive producer), Paula Abdul and Jason Derulo during his audition in Los Angeles and a grueling callback week in Las Vegas, Nowakowski became one of 20 finalists who will compete during the 12th season of live performances, which starts Monday. The show has a new "stage-versus-street" format, with 10 dancers in each group. One person from each group will be eliminated weekly before the Sept. 14 finale to crown America's favorite dancer.

This is not the first time a professional ballet dancer has impressed on the show. Lythgoe, calling Nowakowski the best dancer the show has ever had, quickly compared him to all-star Alex Wong, a former Miami Ballet star who was on a trajectory to win in 2010 before he ruptured his Achilles tendon. Wong's performances won two Emmy Awards. He has since been in the Tony-winning "Newsies" on Broadway and landed a lot of commercial work.

Recently, fans voted Wong's "Outta Your Mind" hip-hop duet with all-star Stephen "tWitch" Boss the show's best routine ever. Boss, who is mentoring this season's street team, said he couldn't wait to see what Nowakowski would do with hip-hop.

A native of South Korea, Nowakowski was born with a cleft palate, a birth defect in which the top of the mouth isn't properly fused. Connie and Gary Nowakowski of Rochester, N.Y., adopted him when he was 6 months old and have seen him through about a dozen reconstructive operations. Growing up, Nowakowski endured bullying. "But I always felt really beautiful when I was dancing, and that's all that really mattered to me," he told host Cat Deeley.

He said this week he'd still like to make a few more corrections to his scarred upper lip, but given the attention that's now been drawn to it, he doesn't want to send the wrong message. He suddenly feels a responsibility to represent others with cleft palates.

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Aside from his emotional backstory, Nowakowski exudes charm and impeccable technique. Around younger dancers with nowhere near his level of training during the chaotic callback week, he was kind. "It's refreshing to be around that energy," he said. "It reminded me of why I started."

He landed in ballet because he got a good job offer from Houston early, but he relishes all kinds of movement, he said. He has loved "So You Think You Can Dance" since he was a teenager. "It celebrates dance in a positive way," he said. "It was something I had on my list."

Nowakowski earned kudos at Houston Ballet as the rafter-grazing fire god in Stanton Welch's "La Bayadère," also hamming it up in pointe shoes as one of the stepsisters in "Cinderella" and bringing sleek power to contemporary ballets such as Welch's "Tu Tu" and Hans van Manen's "Solo." His repertoire also ranged to Frederick Ashton's vintagelike "Les Patineurs" and Jirí Kylián's dramatic "Soldiers Mass."

Welch, the company's artistic director, favors versatile dancers. He's said in the past, it doesn't surprise him when some make a break for TV or Broadway. Nowakowski's best friend, former corps dancer Aria Alexander, moved to LA to work commercially several years ago. She's been an inspiration, he said.

Before leaving Houston, Nowakowski took some private ballroom dance lessons and attended hip-hop classes at MetDance in Midtown to prepare for at least a few of the styles he could be asked to perform next. He's accustomed to a high-pressure environment that requires learning choreography fast, so that aspect of the show will be easier for Nowakowski than some of the other contestants. But the mental hurdles are still hard, he said.

In Houston, he had highly structured workdays in state-of-the-art studios. Houston Ballet's dancers are protected by union rules that limit their hours and demand that rehearsal schedules be posted well in advance. In Las Vegas, the "So You Think You Can Dance" competitors had to rehearse at all hours on the carpeted floor of a hotel ballroom, and they never knew what was coming next, "so you couldn't mentally prepare," Nowakowski said.

It was exhausting - and just the kind of excitement he'd hoped for. "It kept me on edge and kept my adrenalin going. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, which is what I wanted," he said.

He now checks his email each night for the next day's schedule. This week was consumed with photo shoots, interviews and other promotional work before rehearsals began. Now he has to flip on what he calls his brain's " 'Nutcracker' zone" - a steady mindset that enables him to endure weeks of nonstop performing.

"So You Think You Can Dance" is full of repeat contestants, but Nowakowski said if he's cut, he doesn't expect to audition again. He feels like he's given it his best shot.

"I'm just taking it day by day and enjoying the process," he said.

Then what?

He doesn't know, but finds that exciting, too. "Even if I make it to the end, the show only goes to September," he said.